1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to resource sharing between devices. In particular, the present disclosure relates to transmitting and receiving resource information for identifying a resource accessible through a device over a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, technological advances have resulted in an increasing number of devices becoming commercially available that include networking capabilities. Originally restricted to desktop computers, it is now common for devices such as televisions and mobile telephones (“smartphones”), and even household appliances such as refrigerators, to include network interfaces. Typically, a central server or hub is required to manage devices in a home network, which is configured to maintain a permanent network in which the same security settings are applied to communications between all devices on the network. As network connections become more common in mobile devices such as tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers and smartphones, there is a need for a flexible approach to network management that can respond to different devices frequently joining and leaving the network, and that can allow efficient resource sharing between such devices. In the prior art, the only way to add new functionality to a device is to upgrade to a newer version of the device that includes the desired functionality, for example upgrading a non-Global Positioning System (non-GPS) digital camera to a GPS-enabled camera to allow geo-tagging of photos. The present invention is made in this context.